DEVELOPING… The Fox News Decision Desk can now project that Ohio Congressman Jim Renacci, who has been endorsed by President Trump, will defeat businessman Mike Gibbons in the Buckeye State’s Republican Senate Primary.

ORIGINAL STORY…. Businessman Mike Braun will defeat two sitting congressmen in Indiana’s Republican Senate primary, while it’s too early to call the Senate primary contests in West Virginia and Ohio, according to the Fox News Decision Desk.

Braun, a former state legislator who poured his own money into the race, is projected to defeat Reps. Luke Messer and Todd Rokita. With 75 percent of votes in, Braun has 41 percent, Messer has 30 percent and Rokita has 29 percent. Braun will face incumbent Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly.

Meanwhile, Republican Mike DeWine and Democrat Richard Cordray are projected to win their party’s primaries in the race to succeed term-limited GOP Gov. John Kasich.

In the three Senate primaries in Indiana, West Virginia and Ohio, voters are picking Republican nominees to take on some of the most vulnerable incumbent Senate Democrats in this year’s midterm elections. Republicans hold a slim 51-49 advantage in the Senate.

In recent days, the contest in West Virginia has received the most national attention. It is too early to say whether former coal executive Don Blankenship will beat U.S. Rep. Evan Jenkins and state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey.

On Monday, President Trump appealed to the state’s primary voters to oppose Blankenship, arguing he “can’t win” in the general election.

Blankenship served a year in prison on a misdemeanor conviction for conspiring to violate mine safety laws, in connection with the Upper Big Branch Mine explosion in West Virginia in 2010 that killed 29 workers.

At his election night gathering on Tuesday, Blankenship told supporters he is not conceding but acknowledged his numbers aren’t looking good. He told Fox News that if current results hold, he thinks the “overhang” of bad headlines about the Upper Big Branch explosion had the biggest impact.

Blankenship has also made waves in recent days for airing a campaign ad referring to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., as “cocaine Mitch.”

Still, Blankenship has won over voters by portraying himself as a true conservative outsider, compared to Jenkins and Morrisey.

The West Virginia Senate race is considered a toss-up in the midterm elections, as Republicans hope to unseat incumbent Joe Manchin, a Democrat who first won the seat in a 2010 special election.

In Indiana, Braun spent millions on ads arguing he’s an outsider, but his primary rivals attacked him over voting records indicating he voted in Democratic primaries until 2012.

Braun has responded by saying he is a conservative Republican, but he voted in past Democratic primaries to have a say in local races dominated by Democrats. His rivals have asked who he voted for in the 2008 Democratic primary race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, but Braun claims he voted for neither.

Braun was elected to the Indiana State House as a Republican in 2014.

In Ohio, Rep. Jim Renacci is favored to win the state’s Republican primary on Tuesday and face off against incumbent Sen. Sherrod Brown in November. The Fox News Decision Desk cannot yet project whether Renacci will defeat his rival Republicans.

Renacci faces a crowded Republican field, but has been backed by President Trump.

Also seeking the GOP nomination in Tuesday’s primary are Marysville small business owner Melissa Ackison, Cincinnati-area financial management company founder Daniel Kiley and retired public administrator Don Elijah Eckhart from Galloway.